Malaysia Flight 370: New Clues: Hijacking Looks More Likely — Experts

As investigators expand the search area for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 into the Indian Ocean, new clues are emerging in this baffling tragedy — like the suspicious fate of the plane’s communication devices — that suggest that the plane’s mysterious disappearance is actually a hijacking.

There’s one piece of the puzzle that investigators keep coming back to in this case: Why Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 stopped sending identifying transponder codes before it disappeared. Now some experts are saying that the most likely answer to that question is that the transponder and the plane’s data reporting system were turned off manually — by hijackers.

While it’s possible a power failure could have turned the plane’s transponder off, the equipment uses so little power that it would have been one of the last things to shut down, says John Nance, a broadcast aviation analyst and veteran pilot. More likely, the transponder was turned off manually. And to add to the suspicion, the plane’s data reporting system was shut down 14 minutes before the transponder. This also suggests that the communication devices were turned off manually, because if there had been a crash or a fire, it’s most likely that both systems would have gone down at about the same time.

“I’m in a head-scratching mode,” John tells CNN. “The most likely probability is that a human hand turned that off. Then you get into the logic tree of who and why and there aren’t that many channels in that tree.”

“This is beginning to look very, very much like a hijacking,” he adds.

David Soucie, a former Federal Aviation Administration safety inspector, seconds this theory.

It seems likely “that someone forced those pilots to take control of the aircraft and take it off course,” he tells CNN.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: Plane May Have Flown Into Indian Ocean

On day six of the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, a new report claims that the reason rescue teams haven’t been able to locate the missing plane is because they may not be looking in the right place. The aircraft reportedly kept flying for four more hours after it lost contact with air traffic controllers.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said on March 13 that “some new information that’s not necessarily conclusive” could lead to “reallocating some assets” in the Indian Ocean. The new data seems to pose more questions than answers, but we hope it will help investigators finally find the missing airliner.

HollywoodLifers, what are your thoughts on the mystery surrounding Malaysian Flight MH370? Share your thoughts in the comments below.